High Expectations and your Employees – by Safety Speaker John Drebinger

In the past several months, I have been re-creating a presentation that causes people to want to watch out for each other. It has three parts; first, I give people 5 reasons they would want to watch out for the safety of others. Next, I teach a few ways people can share safety with someone else and still feel comfortable doing it. Finally, I wrap the presentation up by discussing how to effectively react when someone has cared enough to watch out for your safety.

As a safety speaker I am very excited with the results employees have achieved using what they have learned in this presentation. I am also excited because this new presentation entitled, “Would You Watch Out For My Safety,” has generated a book with the same title. Now, I anxiously await the first company that will purchase the book for their employees.

My previously published book was targeted to safety teams, leaders and management. This book is designed for each and every member of my audience. I thought I would share with you the reasons why buying this book will help your employees be safe on and off the job.

First, by giving each and every employee a copy, you are confirming that you have high expectations of them. One person that I talked to believed his people wouldn’t read a book. It opened up my eyes as to why some times we get such poor safety performance out of people. It is often because we expect less than the best. A friend of mine who is an expert at writing and publishing shared with me an interesting bit of information when I shared the above scenario with him.

He asked me why people go to bookstores and libraries. I had no idea. He said, “People go to libraries and bookstores because it makes them feel smart.” I realized the magic of that information. By giving your employees a copy of a book, you are letting them know you believe they are smart. For years, in safety, I have heard safety people mention you lead by example and that your actions speak louder than your words. That certainly applies in this case. When I speak and you give everyone a copy of my book, it conveys the unconscious message that you respect and think highly of your employees.

One other reason to give the book to the employees is even if they don’t read it, the physical design of the cover helps to reinforce the message they heard. Even if they put it on the shelf and never read it, they will continually see the title, Would You Watch Out for My Safety? It reminds them of the lesson I have taught them.

In addition, because of my study of people and audiences, I have written and structured the book to actually get more people to read and finish the book.